Grrrr- Everyone Knows Everything (Apparently)

As I’m rejoining the poker world, I’ve been posting over on 2+2 to try and get my mind back into the poker grove.  Since I’m playing NL10 I’m posting on the micro forum, which is probably good because mostly it’s just simple concepts and plays (where I need to be focusing right now).  My impression of the posts is that people generally overestimate and overthink plays at that level- usually make a hand->bet, bet, bet wins the money.

At any rate, one post in general really frustrated me- I questioned a PF call in a hand (and I still think it’s a losing play), and rather than listen to what I had to say and evaluate it, he called me a “nit” and tried to educate me on the concept of “implied odds”.  Anyway, due to the “I have to argue until people admit I’m right” personality trait that my wife just loves, I tried to explain over and over even when it was clear the poster wasn’t going to see my point.  I did finally give up, but only after explaining spr and haiving a plan for your hand 3 or 4 different ways.  I think what’s really frustrating is to see a player come to a poker forum and post a hand with the apparent desire to learn to improve at poker, but then refuse to listen or try to understand logic that might improve his game.  It was easier to call me a nit than to think about the arguments I brought up.  I suppose I should be happy there are players out there like this,  as they are always going to be donaters in any kind of challenging game, but I just hate trying to help and have people ignore it.  At any rate, it’s a good reminder for to make sure I’m always open and willing to learn.

So this brings me to the point: I think the most important poker skill having a reasonable estimation of your ability- that is, the reason people lose at poker is that they think they are better than they are- any loses are chalked up to “bad luck” and they never improve.  This is true from the casual player who never tries to learn the game to the poster on 2+2 who argues with every suggestion and calls anyone who disagrees names.  The most I’ve learned about poker has been open discussions with my peers (like threads13), free from groupthink where we push each others’ ideas about poker.  Sometimes we’d agree to disagree, but we always profited from being willing to question each other and our own plays.  I’ve never been an awesome poker player, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never have the skill that the truly great players have, but I’ve been able to beat some pretty tough games just because I’m not willing to be satisfied with my game- I’m always look for ways to improve.  And this is a trait I see in all of the best players.

Anyway, I know as I’m coming back to the game that there are some big leaks- I have to try and remember what I saw from this player and make sure I don’t do it myself.  I need to be open to criticism and learning concepts that may challenge my ideas of existing concepts.  Poker is a complicated game and there are always adjustments to be made- if I’m not continuously tweaking I won’t be ready when I finally get up into the tough games, and believe me, I am to be ready!

So Far, So Good

Ok, so making some decent progress here.  I had a pretty rough session this morning where I dropped 3 buy ins, but then had a second session where I made them up plus gained three more.  I’m 9 buy ins away from moving up to 25Nl.  The good thing is, grinding 20 tables is really helping me get back in the swing of things and remember how to play again.  As I move up and actually get close to the stakes I was playing at before I’ll certain have to drop down to fewer tables.  Obviously the 10NL games are incredibly soft, and in some cases they are probably teaching me bad habits.  Well, only bad if you don’t realize what’s going on, I suppose.  Really, from my limited live experience 10Nl is probably a good primer for 1/2NL live, as the most important skill you can have is how to extract money when your hand hits.

Now that I have 9K hands in pt3, I’ve noticed a few things that bother me.  One is that I’m loosing money on hands that don’t make it to show down.  This can be a couple of different things- it may be the nature of the limit (if people call you down, you are going to have to make a hand to profit), it could be the I’m not really “playing the player” very well due to playing so many tables and missing bluffing opportunities, or it could be a hole in my game.  It’s something I’ve been paying attention to, though, and it does seem to have stabalized a little, so maybe it’s just a leak that I can plug.

The REALLY disturbing thing I’ve found is that I’m losing money on the button.  In fact, that is the only position where I’m losing, including the blinds.  This, of course, should not be, and I’m not sure what to make of it.  I think, actually, it may be that my hand selection is a little looser (too loose) from the button and I’m relying more on position that I benifit from it against players who play their hands relativtly straight forwardly.  The other possibility is that I am not handling button vs bb situations well and losing money by c-betting too much or not enough.  I’ll have to dig into the numbers a bit and see what’s going on.

I also looked up threads13 again only to find out he went pro (grrrrr) and some great things are happening for him.  Fortunatly, he’s agreed to sweat me a little so hopefully I’ll profit from his now-epic poker playing abilities :p

I’m Back (I think)

Haha, so clearly I took a loooong break from poker right after I started this blog.  I think I was hitting it too hard in those days and burned myself out.  At any rate, I stopped play for about a year and a half (except for an amazing poker cruise that I’ll probably blog about in the future)- I even cashed out my bankroll that was enough for 400 NL (though I was still playing mainly 200NL) when I left.

Anyway, I’ve started playing again, but with no bankroll to work with, so I’m back at 10NL grinding out 20 tables at a time.  It will be fun to chronicle my rise back up, asssuming I remember how to play again.  I’m about halfway to 25NL, so hopefully the hot streak keeps going.  Thus far I’ve been 20 tabling without any kind of stats- but I finally broke down, admitted I’m really playing poker again, and got the new version of poker tracker.  Hopefully having real data won’t screw me up now

Anyway, my goal is go get back to at least 100NL, and possibly 200NL if I can remember how to play properly.  I’ll keep track of where I am, and hopefully I can hook back up with some old poker buddies (looking at you threads13!).

LOL Donkaments

For my first year playing poker I was almost exclusively a tourney player.  First STTs, then MTTs.  For the second year I played a few tournaments, especially STTs when I was downsinging/playing bad in cash, but I really haven’t done much in the MTT world.  In fact, I now find them pretty frustrating.  It’s just such a pain to play well for a couple hours and then get coolered/sucked out on and end up getting nothing.  Plus, you have to fold a lot more “big pot” hands (suited connectors, small pairs) because you are playing so short.  Still, playing a final table is a LOT of fun when you can get there, so I fired up about 10 20/180s on Stars and dedicated a couple of hours to trying to make a FT.

It did NOT go well.  I didn’t make the money in any of the tournaments, despite getting it in good/as a flip most of the time.  I really don’t know how I used to play these, as having KK lose to AQ (on the river, obv) just makes me want to pull my hair out/kill something innocent.

I think I’m just going to have to fact the facts that I have lost the inner tournament player in me.  Even when I play well it’s a frustrating experience, and all too often I’m just getting titled when I lose a pot to a donkey and donk off the rest of my short stack in some dumb move.
So I think I’m done with tournaments for good, now . . .  Well, at least until this weekend where I’m bound to give it another shot.

Is Busting Your Boss -EV?

So I’m in Tampa this week for work, and I found out they have poker rooms here!  This is not good for my decision to take a break from poker for a week . . .

Actually, it IS good for me because these games are such a change of pace from the aggro 6max games I’ve been playing.  They are incredibly soft and full of people who will pay off with really weak hands.  The games was 1/2 with a max buy in of $100.  Kind of weird, but it has to do with the laws of Florida.  At any rate, I lost one stack with a pretty bad PF play, but I think it’s OK becuase it really was just a matter of adapting to these really loose games and I’m bound to make some mistakes.  The hand was this- 5 limpers to me on the button and I pick up 99.  This is an easy raise in my normal game, so I made it $15 to go.  This raise was too small, obviously, even for online, but I’m a little flustered by the chips instead of typing in bets so I’m not really thinking straight.  This was the bad play that lost my stack.  I think I should have limped behind here, but if I was going to raise I should have made it $20 to go at least, and probably $25 with a hand as weak as 99.  At any rate, all 5 playeres called and we went to the flop 6 handed with a $90 pot.  The flop comes out 78T with a two flush and I only have $85 left at this point.  It is checked to the player on my right who moves in.  I think I’m pretty much committed at this point getting better than 2:1 from the pot, figuring all my straight outs are good.  That is, I’m not worried about the flush because if he has clubs, then I have him beat.  Unfortunatly on of the blinds called all in and flipped up a flush draw.  The player who moved all in showed J9o for the nuts, and I was drawing to 3 outs for a split pot.  The board paired on the turn giving me a few more outs to win the pot, but the flush came in on river and the flush chaser won a monster pot.  Oh well, I think the flop call was good given the size of the pot, but I wouldn’t have been in that position if I hadn’t raised PF.  I think 99 has more value as a set mining hand against these players than as a pair.

Anyway, I got most of my money back when I limped KQs from UTG+1 behind an UTG limper.  The flop came out K high with two diamonds and I managed to get one of the blinds to stack off with K8.  I ended up down $55 for the day due to a 3 outer on the river and some missed flops, but overall I think the game is very soft and I could crush it given a little more time (I only played for two hours).

I would have played longer, but my boss and I only have one car, and he was getting bored.  So we went to Outback, then back to the room where I shipped him $5 on Stars and we played a 4/180 together.  I’ve showed him how to play the game before and he’s played some 0.1/.02 NL, as well as a bunch of play money games.  He played really well (with some input from me), was actually the CL for a while, and we ended up on the bubble at the same table.  I had to turn my laptop so he couldn’t see my hands, and I had to stop giving him as much advice!

He was playing very scared on the bubble, basically because it was his first tournament and he really wanted to make the money.  I can’t really blame him, but ultimatly it is what got him.  There was a big CL at our table abusing the bubble, and even though I was fairly short, I was shoving with a lot of hands because everyone was playing so tight.  My boss got really short on chips because he couldn’t find a spot (and he passed up a few he should have taken, I think) and knew that I was pushing some hands light.  I picked up AT from the CO and shoved- he called from the SB with A7 and about 4BBs.  He was well ahead of my range, but I had a real hand that time and busted him on the bubble.  Yuck!  Fortunatly he’s a good guy and a friend- I do hope this doesn’t factor on my performance review next year!

I busted a few hands later re-stealing with KQ that ended up in a race vs. 66, but I wasn’t too worried about it.  It was a $4 tournament, so not really the stakes I’m used to .  First place was a little over a buy in at 1/2.  My boss had a blast, but was pretty deflated that he didn’t make the money- I would be too in my first tourny with such a good run.  He wan’ted to play a STT after that, but it was late and we had to get up to work the next morning.

I hope to be able to play some more live poker today- that was a real blast and the games are super soft.  I really enjoy live poker a lot- I miss the action of playing a lot of tables/hands, but it’s nice to kick back and play some cards, chat with the players, and have a good time.

One good thing about the 4/180 tournament is that I played really, really well, and that’s a good thing because I’ve been doing terrible at tourny’s lately.  I realize they are completely soft, but so are the 20/180s so I have some confidence that I could play a few and maybe take one down soon.  It’s nice to have a change of pace from the tougher 1/2 games.

Sly Jeff Learns How To Play Trips

This was the chat directly after a hand where I had KK, the flush got there, and I bet the river anyway planning to fold to a raise.  Villain had never raised in the hand so It was a thin value/blocking bet.  Villain said “you are so lucky” after the hand.  I asked what he meant and he said “you had a flush”.  I said “bad read” and here’s the resulting chat: level or real?  You decide.

BTW, I did manage to stack villain about 5 hands later when I flopped a set on a board with both straight and flush draws.

Dealer: SlyJeff, it’s your turn. You have 8 seconds to act
donk finder: lol
donk finder: yeah ok
SlyJeff: what did you have?
Dealer: donk finder has a pair of Nines
Dealer: Game #14717005815: donk finder wins pot ($7.65) with a pair of Nines
donk finder: trips
SlyJeff: wow
SlyJeff: super bad fold
Dealer: pokski1000, it’s your turn. You have 8 seconds to act
SlyJeff: but thanks for the money
Dealer: Game #14717016347: jaymzisking wins pot ($5)
donk finder: well thats why im up hugh on this thing
Dealer: Game #14717022633: DeSpeler wins pot ($4)
SlyJeff: I just didn’t think you’d slow play trips on that board
donk finder: flush and a stright draw
donk finder: come man
donk finder: come on man
Dealer: Game #14717028171: DeSpeler wins pot ($38.55)
SlyJeff: right, why would you slow play trips there?
Dealer: Game #14717037692: jaymzisking wins pot ($4.75)
donk finder: CAUSE F THE FLUSH AND STRIGHT DRAW
SlyJeff: gocha
SlyJeff: my bad
donk finder: and then the flush came like magic

Ouch!

Warning: this is just griping so proceed at your own risk:

I just dropped 5 buy ins in about 2 hours today. It kind of hurt. I had top two vs a set in 6max, AA sucked out on my set of Queens on the river, I accidentally mistyped a 3bet of $125 with AK into KK at full ring (so of course I called his shove), I managed to play QQ bad and stack off vs AA when there was no need (though I only would have saved $75 if I’d played the hand correctly), and there were a bunch of really dumb beats- as in I 3bet from the blinds over limpers pretty sizably and get called by Ax and 88, ace on the flop. I managed to check it down without putting more in, but I lose to the Ax and HE loses to the 88 who was all in and made a flush (deserved I say). Of course, some of this was followed by tilty play until I figured out I was tilting and logged out. So I’ll hit the games again later tonight or tomorrow morning and hopefully Stars will make it up to me.

In other news, I’m now 1/3 of the way to my plasma TV in FPPs. I just need to not think about the 1K I just dropped being able to pay for 1/3 of it in cash

Tomorrow is a Holiday (hurray for working for a Bank!) so I’ll probably play some more poker. If I play tilty, though, I might have to take a break. I’m going to be in Tampa for work all next week, so maybe I’ll be forced to break anyway. With the amount I’ve been playing recently that might be a good thing.

I think the thing I’m really going to focus on is playing well after having lost a lot. This is something I’ve struggled with, but I’ve been doing better recently. I think if I can smooth out my game at become more consistent, I’ll really take my game to the next level.

Sly Jeff Tries 6-Max

Loosefer encouraged me to give 6-max a shot so I did. I’ve kind of been intimidated by all of the horror stories full ringers tell about 6-max, but I want to improve my game and I’ve been getting in kind of a rut at full ring recently so I figured it was time.

I played 2 tables (while playing a 20/180 on the side) and had a lot of fun. I ended up 2.5 buy ins up despited losing a $200 pot all in on the turn with QQ vs KT on a KQ9x board. Even thought there were some really good players at my tables (FutureDoc for one, who I understand is really solid) it was incredibly easy to exploit the weaker players at table- much more so than at full ring. My frustration with full ring recently has been I’m always running up against solid TAG regs, but in the 6 max games it was pretty easy just to stay out of the way of the decent players. And the bad players are really, really bad. My first big pot was against a guy who limp/called with KQ and then stacked off on a Q high flop vs my AA. I didn’t trap him at all- just bet and raised till all the chips were in the middle. Poker should be so easy!

My biggest pot was vs a 50 VPIP who open limped with TT. I had KJs in the small blind and completed. I felt like it was better to keep the pot small and see a flop since I was fairly sure I could get a lot of value against this player if I could make a big hand and I wanted room in the stacks to be able to draw if I flopped a piece. The flop came out KJ3r and I checked with the plan to c/r. This was a flop that could have easily hit his range and he’s certainly going to bet if it did. He checked behind so I figured I wasn’t getting much value, but at least my hand was disguised. The turn was another K giving me the nuts. I bet out $3 into the $6 pot just trying to get some action with my big hand- I didn’t figure on getting any because I had the deck crippled, but I thought with the board pairing I might be able to get value from a small pair thinking that I’m taking a stab at the pot; also, I figured I could get called by a draw. Villain called with his TT so looks like that plan worked. River was a T, giving villain an underfull. At this point I thought the board looked really dangerous to smallish pair so I probably wasn’t getting paid unless villain made a big hand (i.e. a straight- I wasn’t thinking about TT). I overbet the pot, putting $15 into a $12 pot. My reasoning was that if he had a hand big enough to call on this board, then he’d probably call an overbet. And if he had a hand big enough to raise, his raise would bloat the pot enough for me to push. Finally, the overbet might look like a bluff to a player like this who might call with 88 or something else silly. He raised to $60 with his full house and I knew he was going to stack off (unless he was just bluffing) so I pushed the remainder in- I had him covered so it was $116 more for him and he called with his underfull.

Even thought this player was pretty bad, it’s hard to fault his river play. The problem is that he shouldn’t have limped his hand in the first place and let me see a cheap flop. And even if I HAD called PF (which I probably would have vs this player), he would have had a much better idea of where he was in the hand on the turn and could have gotten away before he made a second best hand. Thought of course, I don’t know that he folds the turn there ever, no matter what info he gets.

Not really a fascinating hand, but it was neat to be able to stack a player for a $362 pot when going into the turn the pot was only $6.

Anyway, I’ll probably start mixing in some 6 max tables to my sessions in the future, basically looking for whatever tables appear to be good in either format. Obviously this was a small sample size, but I never really felt uncomfortable when making decisions, even the semi tough ones, so I think I’ll be alright.

Belok And The $0.95 Bet

Belok is one of the decent TAGs at 1/2 (well decent in my mind- he pretty much owns my soul). At any rate, this evening he started adding $0.95 to all his bets. Now I have no idea why he’s doing this, and when I asked him about it he said “never underestimate the power of 95 cents”. LOL. Well I’ll tell you what it did to me: I raised $8 TT UTG and he made a raise of $29.95. This is an easy fold, even in position. I don’t have odds to set mine and I am well behind his range. However, my multi-tabling self saw the big stack of chips in front of his bet and my immediate thought was “He’s pushing all in- he normally buys in full and is decent so he probably just lost a stack and is steaming. Obviously I have to call with the odds I’m getting here”. See, my brain is conditioned to see a big stack of chips and think that it’s an all in push. So I called- and was completely shocked when the cards stopped after the flop and my action was requested. ARG! The flop came out AKx and we checked it down- he had QQ. He was surprised to see my TT, but that’s the power of the $0.95 bet. Just remember, when everyone’s doing this give Belok props, cause it started with him.

In other news, I played well this evening (even though I wasn’t planning on playing) and managed up a buy in despite getting stacked by Sandviper with an underflush. Maybe I could have gotten away, but I guess that’s the way it goes. I did pull off some nice bluffs and really picked some decent spots. I 4bet SetzerMason with AA, though I’m not really sure that’s the right play. He folded, but it still was a nice pot. He’s tricky and can show up with anything there, but since he’s going to 3bet me a lot with weaker hands, I kind of feel like I have to establish that I can stand up to him, which means 4betting some, and obviously a wider range than AA. But if I’m going to 4bet a wider range, I need to 4bet with AA too. Well, we’ll see how it goes. I really don’t want to tangle with him much and would be much happier if he’d just leave me the heck alone!

Anyway, tomorrow I’m going to play some more, and SlyWife is going to try playing some 4/180s. That should be fun. I’d love to get her into this game.

I Am Such A Fish

Yuck.  I dropped 8 buy ins in 3 sessions.  Some of it was running bad and loosing flips, but really I played pretty bad.  I got called a fish at the table and this time it was right (I chased a flush I ought not to).

So anyway, it’s back to basics for me.  I’ve tightened up my early game and found some tables with limpers that I could abuse.  Ah the benefits of playing at 5AM!  I managed to earn back 2 buy ins with some pretty solid and aggressive play so that’s a good feeling, especially since I don’t think I’m going to be able to play tomorrow.  Hopefully a little break will help me get back to my A game and I can start playing more consistently.